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THE PEOPLE m% 

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The attention that is being given to revising the govern- 
ments of our large cities with a view to check the manifold 
evils and corruptions that have arisen, and the noble stand 
taken by President Hayes in favor of the administration of 
government for the best interests of the people at large, 
paramount to mere party considerations, make it the duty 
of individual citizens to aid these efforts, and such is the 
motive which prompts the present undertaking. 

The commission appointed by Governor Hartranft to de- 
vise a plan for the government of cities has completed its 
labors, and the result is before the Legislature and the people. 
Many of their suggestions are excellent, and will in any event 
be productive of good ; but the work as a whole, it is to be 
feared, is too cumbersome and too much crowded with an 
infinity of details, superadded to existing legislation, to meet 
with present acceptance. It is not so much a revision of the 
forms of city governments that is needed as that government 
shall be honestly administered for the good of the people. 

The particular vice which pervades the administration of 
government, municipal, State, and national, in this country, is 
the disposition among officeholders to regard government as 
a thing existing for their especial benefit rather than that of 
the people, and to form rings and combinations, and resort 
to any measure, however base, to accomplish their selfish 
purposes and perpetuate their power. We have seen how 
distinguished senators and statesmen have put forth their 
greatest efforts, not to promote the glory and honor of the 
nation, but to retain or secure to some party favorite the 

l 






office of collector of revenue, or some other lucrative posi- 
tion. But it will be the special object of these pages to 
show how far the people of Philadelphia are victims to the 
rapacity and corruption of professional officeholders and poli- 
ticians; and to that end to bring to notice and comment upon 
some of the more significant events of the last few years. 

Corruptions of the Fee System. 

One of the most prolific sources of corruption in this city 
has been the enormous profits realized from the fees of what 
have been known as the Row Offices This it was that has 
fed, fostered, and sustained the ring that has usurped the 
government of our city, and that has diffused its poisonous 
influence into our whole system, not excepting even the judi- 
ciary, and controlled the legislation of the State in its behalf. 
A brief review of the subject will be found instructive. It 
was one of the chief aims of the Constitutional Convention of 
1873 to break up this system, and the importance with which 
the subject, was regarded cannot be better shown than by a 
quotation from a speech of the late Theodore Cuyler, a mem- 
ber of the Convention. Referring to one of the clauses in- 
tended to remove the evil, he said : " There are no words that 
I could use which could overstate the importance in this 

county of this provision I mean to say, Mr. 

Chairman, that the fees derived from these offices in this 
county are simply stupendous, and that they are the great 
source of the vilest political corruption. The pursuit of the 
particular offices to which this section points, and the distri- 
bution made for corrupt political purposes of the enormous 
profits that arc derived from them, are to-day the most 
fruitful source of political corruption in our county." 

The remedy for this evil put into the new Constitution 
was, that all the fees derived from these offices should be 
paid into the public treasury, and that the officers should be 
paid by salaries to be provided by the Legislature. The Con- 
vention, anticipating the opposition of the Philadelphia ring 
and the frauds that would be invoked to defeat the Consti- 
tution, appointed a special commission to conduct the elec- 
tion in Philadelphia on the question of its adoption. An 
appeal to the courts 031 technical grounds defeated the com- 



mission, however, and the election took the usual course, with 
a determined effort of the officeholding interests, including 
the Mayor, to defeat the Constitution ; and the public will 
recall how a select company assembled at the Mayor's office, 
undertook to accomplish their object by means of their prac- 
ticed skill at counting out, and the consternation of the 
Mayor lest he should be put into a " hole." Despite all these 
efforts, however, the people carried the Constitution by an 
acknowledged majority of some 34,000 in Philadelphia and 
150,000 in the State. Next came into office a new District 
Attorney, Prothonotary, Recorder of Deeds, Clerk of the 
Quarter Sessions, and Coroner, who took the ground that as 
the Legislature had passed no law providing salaries, they 
were still entitled, notwithstanding the Constitution, to have 
the fees of their respective offices, and proceeded to pocket 
them as usual. 

The new Constitution went into effect on the 1st of Janu- 
ary, 1874, and required that the Legislature should at its 
first session, or as soon as might be, pass all such laws as 
should be necessary for carrying it into effect. Under ring 
influence, however, the first session, that of 1874, passed, and 
no salary law was enacted The session of 1875 passed, and 
still no salary law was enacted. The session of 1876 passed 
until the 31st of March of that year, when, under the pres- 
sure of public sentiment, the salary law was passed and 
approved. 

In the Convention an amendment had been moved that 
the salaries of these officers should none of them be as high 
as those of our judges — $7000 a year. It was objected, how- 
ever, that this, though otherwise approved, was too much 
like legislation, and should be left to the Legislature. 

The Salary Law of 1876. 

And now let us see what officeholding interests in the 
Legislature have directed that the people of Philadelphia 
shall pay to their county officers, and let all taxpayers pay 
particular attention. District Attorney, $15,000 a year!! 
with one assistant at $6000, one at $5000, and one at $3000 
a year. This to the District Attorney being more than 
double what is received by the judges of the courts, and 



three times the amount given to the District Attorney of 
Pittsburg, who has but one assistant at $1500 a year, and 
three times more than it should be. Besides, the District 
Attorney, with ample assistants, can keep up his private 
practice, while the judges can have no other business, have 
no assistants, and have to work much of the time day and 
night. 

And so the list goes on. Sheriff, $15,000 ; Prothonotary, 
$10,000; Clerk of the Quarter Sessions, $10,000; Recorder 
of Deeds, $12,000 ; Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' 
Court, $10,000; Treasurer, $10,000; Controller, $10,000; 
Coroner, $6000 ; Deputy Coroner, $2500 ; and Commissioners, 
each $5000 ; making an aggregate of $100,500 to these nine 
offices. And yet so poor are we that the necessity of re- 
ducing the salaries of the school teachers has been repeatedly 
urged. 

But a most important and extraordinary feature of the 
salary act of 1876 remains to be noticed. We have seen that 
the third session from the adoption of the Constitution had 
nearly passed before any salary law was enacted, and when 
it did at last come it was with a provision that it should not 
take effect till the expiration of the term of present incumbents 
of county officers ; the design being to give to District Attor- 
ney Sheppard, Prothonotary Mann, Recorder of Deeds Lane, 
Quarter Sessions Clerk Bingham, and Coroner Goddard the 
enormous fees of their respective offices for another full 
term, in fraud of the Constitution; thus, if this nefarious 
scheme can be carried out, transferring from the pockets 
of the taxpayers of Philadelphia and into theirs some half a 
million dollars. 

The Salary Board. 

The salary act only determines the pay of the principal 
officers with a few exceptions. The number of clerks and 
assistants and their compensation is mostly left to a Salary 
Board, consisting of the County Commissioners and the Con- 
troller. It was doubtless thought that a board thus consti- 
tuted could be relied upon for loyalty to officeholding interests, 
and so the result has proved, the intention evidently being 
to swallow up in salaries and expenses the entire receipts of 
the respective offices as far as possible. 



Sheriff's Office. 

The first case that came before the board was that of the 
Sheriff's office, as to the number of deputies and assistants 
and thetr compensation ; and here a most significant incident 
occurred. Mr. Enoch Taylor had, as it is understood, agreed 
with the Sheriff to till the position of real estate deputyfor 
$5000 a year, hut the Salary Board said, No! that position 
must be $6000 a year!! and so it was determined This 
single circumstance of itself shows how utterly and entirely 
the interests of the people are subordinated to those of the 
officeholders. The entire list for the Sheriff's office, which 
it will be interesting to taxpayers to examine, is as follows: 
The Sheriff himself, $15,000 ; real estate deputy, $6000, and 
his clerk, $1500; personal estate deputy, $4000 ; appearance 
clerk, $1200, and his assistant, $800 ; execution clerk, $1500 ; 
fee clerk, $1200 ; six deputy sheriffs, each $1500, and a clerk 
for each, $1000; auctioneer, $600; messenger, $800; bill- 
poster, $1000 ; two solicitors, each $2000, and one assistant, 
$1500; driver of van, $1800; Quarter Sessions deputy, $800, 
and his assistant, $100; four court deputies, each $200; 
making altogether $57,900 a year, independent of all extras, 
to run the Sheriff's office. One instance will serve by com- 
parison to show how liberally the people's money has been 
dealt with. The last Sheriff had one solicitor at a salary, as 
is understood, of $2400. There are how three, two at $2000 
each, and one to do the work at $1500 ; making $5500 
against $2400. In one case it was the money of an indi- 
vidual ; in the other it is the money of the taxpayers, and 
this makes the difference. 

The Register of Wills. 
The office of the Register of Wills may also be referred 
to as further evidence of the great liberality of the Salary 
Board in dealing with other people's money. The Register 
himself, by the act of Assembly, is given $10,000 a year ; and 
the Salary Board has decreed the following: Deputy Regis- 
ter, $6000; State Appraiser, $5000; two transcribing clerks, 
each $1500 ; recording clerk, $1500 ; two assistant recording 
clerks, each $1200 ; account clerk, $1500 ; messenger, $800 ; 
miscellaneous, $500, making a grand total of $30,700 a year 



for the Register's office, the Register being, however, also 
ex-officio clerk of the Orphans' Court. This transcends the 
Sheriff's and perhaps any of the other offices, and shows an 
absolute throwing away of the people's money. 

The number of assistants is wholly unnecessary. The 
services rendered by the chief assistants should be performed 
for one-fourth of the money appropriated for them. 

The Magistrates' Courts. 

The new Constitution and act of Assembly provide for 
twenty-four Magistrates' Courts. There had previously been 
two aldermen for each ward, making some sixty aldermen, 
who were glad to serve for the ftes given by law, and pro- 
vide their own offices. The magistrates are provided offices 
at the expense of the city, and in lieu of fees paid each a 
salary of $3000 a year. The magistrates are directed to 
charge the same fees as were given to the aldermen, and pay 
them over monthly to the City Treasurer. The returns of 
the magistrates for 1877 show that not one of the twenty- 
four returns fees to the amount of his salary ; the largest 
return being that of Ezra Lukens, $2836.56 ; and the next 
William H. List, $1966.15. But two others, R. R. Smith and 
Stuart Field, reach $1000 ; and the smallest is Andrew Alex- 
ander, who returns $142.50, but draws nevertheless his salary 
of $3000 in quarterly payments. The entire aggregate of 
fees returned by twenty-three magistrates for 1877, leaving 
out John Devlin, deceased, is $14,695 ; and the salaries paid 
them $69,000, being a loss to the city of $54,305 a year, be- 
sides the rent of offices ; and showing that the magistrates 
are paid more by from one half to two-thirds than they should 
be, and than three-fourths of them would be glad to get. 
And yet it became a serious question whether the city could 
raise the $2000, or thereabout, necessary to run the Quaran- 
tine last summer, to protect the people from infectious dis- 
eases. So popular have salaries become that even the con- 
stables are now wanting to be salaried. 

The Orphans' Court. 

By act of Assembly of March 18th, 1875, the Orphans' 
Court were authorized to establish a bill of costs, and rules 



as to the advertisement of notices, sales of real estate, etc. 
In pursuance of this the fees have been greatly increased, 
often imposing an additional burden on those little able to 
hear it ; and the clerk is authorized to designate the paper 
in which n-al estate shall be advertised, and he has desig- 
nated The Day. It is not intended to impugn the motives 
of the judges, but the whole proceeding is extraordinary. 
It was certainly not the intention to convert fees into a tax 
upon estates as a source of revenue to the city; and in 
view oi' the disposition to swallow up in salaries all the tees 
from the different offices, this ease cannot he separated from 
others of imposition on the people. The judges in February, 
1877, addressed the Salary Board asking for an additional 
clerk in the office, which may have been right enough, and 
was granted by the board at a salary of §1000 a year; but 
they at the same time, altogether unasked, as it would seem, 
authorized a solicitor to the clerk of Orphans' Court at $2000 
a year ; and that is the way the increased fees go. And who 
interested to get the highest price would think of advertis- 
ing real estate in The Day, however good a paper it may be 
for other purposes? It is simply an additional burden im- 
posed in cases of Orphans' Court sales ; and the regularity of 
the matter is, to say the least, open to censorious comment. 

Evil Consequences of Paying Exorbitant Salaries. 

The money of the people is thus made to flow like water, 
and squandered and bestowed by officeholders one upon an- 
other with the most utter recklessness as if the public purse 
was inexhaustible. The effect upon the community is de- 
moralizing in the extreme. And it is scarcely to be won- 
dered that one who honors a position on the bench should 
have been tempted to become a candidate for an inferior po- 
sition, for the sake of its greater emoluments. Even the tax- 
payers themselves seem affected by the general demoraliza- 
tion, and to be complacently awaiting the time when their 
whole possessions will be swallowed up. They continue by 
their votes to uphold their taskmasters of the ring, and 
thus, like the dog, " lick the hand upraised to give the 
blow." But to rob the people is not a party matter. The 
District Attorney and Sheriff's offices are in hands of Demo- 



crats, but that makes no difference ; when successful, Demo- 
crats become installed into the ofBceholding fraternity as 
against the people, out of whose money they are to be paid 
with the same munificence, though the Legislature or Salary 
Board that grants the money be Republican. 

Though the amount lavished upon officeholders makes but 
a comparatively small part of the aggregate squandering of 
the public money, it is the chief cause of the mischief, by 
the demoralization which it produces. It is a departure 
from the sound business principle of paying the least wages 
that competent workmen can be procured for. 

Most of the evils of which we have to complain in our 
city government are the result of a departure from this rule 
in our county offices. It has kept a large part of the com- 
munity afloat with the hope of living with little or no work, 
and led to rings and combinations for this purpose, and to 
political frauds of every description. It is perhaps among 
the least of the evil consequences that when men have too 
much pay they become useless. The Prothonotary, the Clerk 
of the Quarter Sessions, the Recorder of Deeds, and the Reg- 
ister of Wills, and the Clerk of the Orphans' Court, do noth- 
ing, or next to nothing, for the money they get, whether it 
be a salary of $10,000 or $15,000 a year, or fees to many 
times that amount. Thej^ are but occasional visitors at their 
respective offices. They attend to their private business or 
do nothing. The work of the offices is done by clerks who 
are paid in one form or another by the people. And the 
Deputy Register of Wills is paid so much, and there are so 
many clerks, that he has mostly retired from business, and is 
now seldom seen at the office, the work being done by one 
who receives but one-fourth as much salary. But this is not 
all. The mania for making money off of the people by get- 
ting office, spreads through the community, and men seek 
to get into Councils or the school board, or other offices pay- 
ing no salary, and even spend money and resort to fraud to 
get these positions to make money by preying upon the com- 
munity ; and millions of the people's money is expended for 
un needed improvements, exorbitant prices, and every species 
of reckless expenditure in order that thousands may be pock- 
eted as dividends. The payment of large salaries invites a 



9 

demoralizing struggle for the different positions in which 
the least scrupulous are most likely to succeed, and the pub- 
lic would be better served for one-fourth or one-third the 

amounts paid in many instances. 

Increase op City Debt. 

Such is the process by which the city debt lias been steadily 
increasing by millions for years past, and from $53,270,000 
on January 1st, 1872, to $73,615,000 January 1st, 1878, or 
at the rate of $3,890,000 a year, and this notwithstanding an 
increase of taxation to about the same amount, And this 
is the rate at which the property of the people of Philadel- 
phia is being swallowed up by the ring oligarchy. 

Election Frauds. 

Why do the people continue to submit to all this imposi- 
tion ? On the part of a large body of citizens it is from a 
blind and thoughtless adherence to party, or culpable neglect 
of the plainest duties of citizenship; but there are difficul- 
ties that those who have not known them from actual ob- 
servation can hardly understand. When there is danger of 
a laek of votes to sustain ring supremacy, every species of 
fraud is resorted to that depraved ingenuity can devise- 
repeating, false personation, voting the names of dead men, 
the substitution of tickets, false counting, and making false 
returns, with a determination at all events to get their men 
in regardless of the legal votes, the election being thus ren- 
dered a mere farce. And while these fraudulent practices 
have for some years been practiced principally by the Repub- 
lican ring, because they have had the upper hand, and gen- 
erally the sharpest men at the polls, it is found that neither 
party can be trusted ; and a third party has no chance of 
getting its votes fairly counted ; they are sure to be appro- 
priated by one or the other, or thrown out by common con- 
sent, This was the experience of the Reform Association, 
and it can never be known how many votes were cast for its 
candidates. 

A single instance will show the difficulties that citizens 
have encountered in endeavoring to maintain their rights 
agaiust this monstrous wrong. At the election in February, 



10 

1875, Reform candidates were ran for Councils and for magis- 
trates in the Tenth Ward. The election officers of the 18th 
division, consisting of Republicans and Democrats, certified 
and returned but four votes for the Reform candidates for 
Councils, and fi.ve votes for the magistrate ticket. A very 
little inquiry developed the fact that there were at least 
twenty-Jive votes in the division for these candidates. The 
officers, on request, appeared before Magistrate List to an- 
swer the charge of fraud, when twelve out of the twenty-five 
defrauded voters appeared and testified to voting for the 
Reform candidates, and the accused were bound over for 
trial. On their being brought before Judge Elcock on habeas 
corpus, William B. Mann and Lewis C. Cassidy appeared as 
their counsel, and ten of the same voters appeared and tes- 
tified to voting for the Reform candidates. In disposing of 
the case Judge Elcock said, as reported in the papers at the 
time, " There is not a particle of evidence of fraud in this 
case. The law says any inspector of election who shall be 
convicted of a wilful fraud shall be punished. But simply 
certifying to a return of the number of votes, and that re- 
turn happens to be an error, is no evidence of any crime 
under any law in this Commonwealth. It should be the 
duty of the citizens to aid the election officers, especially 
those of good standing in the community, and especially in 
these times, when the need of good men in such offices is 
felt, should those serving in such capacities be afforded the 
protection of the community. Gentlemen of this kind should 
be brought into court only after making out a very strong 
case. These are gentlemen of position and respectability. 
The relators are discharged." 

Comment on this case is thought to be unnecessary further 
than to say that it was naturally very discouraging to the 
gentlemen who by that means sought redress for being de- 
frauded of their votes. Similar attempts to check this evil 
have been frustrated by the perjury of grand jurors in ignor- 
ing bills for crimes against the election laws where the evi- 
dence of guilt was the clearest possible, and by the perjury 
of petit jurors in acquitting criminals in such cases w r here 
the evidence was equally positive. 

Another species of fraud is that by which even the paupers 



11 



in the Almshouse are made voters to sustain ring supremacy. 
To do this many of them arc put on the pay-roll and money 
of the people paid them for some insigniticanl services, and 
then as employes, it is said, some hundreds are regularly 
voted in the Twenty-seventh Ward. 

Mayor Stokley not Elected i;v the People. 

The Municipal Commission having recommended the con- 
centration of very largo powers in the mayors of our cities, 
it is deemed proper to refer to the great difficulty of getting 
the true popular expression in the choice of such officers, as 
shown by the last election of Mayor Stokley. He was re- 
turned as elected over Joseph L. Caven by a majority of 
2866. A committee of the Reform Club, of which William 
"Welsh was chairman, caused a partial canvass to he made, 
and in their report speak as follows : 

"The number of election divisions is 803, so that an average of less than 
four votes fraudulently cast or counted in each division would secure for Mr. 

Stokley the majority by which he claims his seat To test the 

result of the election this committee caused 73 Republican divisions to be 
carefully canvassed and compared with the official lists of voters where votes 
were recorded. This canvass revealed in these divisions unlawful votes 
amounting in the aggregate to 1904, or an average of more than 26 to a divi- 
sion But the efforts of the rin£ were not confined to the 

polling of illegal votes. In most divisions they held control of the counting, 
and they counted to suit themselves. In the twenty-first division of tin- 
Fourth Ward the returns gave only eleven votes for Mr. Caven, though 
more than forty citizens were found to declare that they had voted for him, 
while 67 names are on the list of voters which were not on the registry, and 
whose names can nowhere be found. In the tenth division of the Twentieth 
Ward it was in evidence in open court that the Democratic overseer was 
made drunk early in the day, and that his signature was forged to the re- 
turns. These returns show only seven votes for Mr. Caven, though our 
canvass has revealed more than forty voters who voted for him. In the 
twenty-sixth division of the First Ward 16 voters, and in the sixteenth divi- 
sion of the Eighth Ward 11 voters were found who voted for Mr. Caven, 
while their names are not on the list of voters as having voted at all." 

The committee, in view of the extraordinary labor and 
expense attending such a proceeding in so large a city, did 
not deem it advisable to undertake a contest of the election ; 
but no one seeing the report of the committee, and knowing 
the ways of the ring combination that supported Mayor 
Stokley, can for a moment doubt that it was by the purest 



12 



fraud that he was returned as elected in February, 1877. 
An average of four fraudulent votes to a division would be 
a very low estimate in view of the result of the partial can- 
vass of the committee. It is more likely there were double 
that many. But suppose this were not so, one thing may be 
put down as certain and that is, that he would not have been 
elected but for the influence of the police and other depart- 
ment employes, whose places are made to depend upon their 
loyalty to the ring, and whose support under these circum- 
stances is in itself a fraud. Thus was the inauguration of 
government " of the people, by the people, and for the people " 
prevented and delayed ; and even then the result would have 
been different but for the influence of thousands of well- 
meaning but party-bound citizens, of whom it is but frank 
to say they ought to know better. 

Who Back the Frauds? 

It is not to be expected that the creatures who go about 
over the city on election days voting at one division after 
another, personating and voting on the names of citizens 
living and dead, do so of their own motion, nor indeed with- 
out a consideration. Of necessity they must be obscure and 
unknown men, and are often specially imported from other 
cities. It is another class of men who furnish them the 
names to be voted, and do the direct cheating and false 
counting. And it is impossible to resist the conclusion that 
the whole thing is backed and sustained by the party leaders, 
though the latter would not deign to do any of the dirty 
work themselves. We may obtain light on this subject by 
showing who come to the rescue when trouble occurs. Who 
become bail and find counsel to defend the criminals? In 
the case of Thomas and Nicholas F. English, charged with 
engineering a gang of some fifteen repeaters at one time, the 
bail was William R. Leeds, ex-sheriff, and recently elected 
to the Gas Trust. Case of Ford, for breaking up ballot- 
boxes and assaulting election officers, R. C. Tittermary, mer- 
cantile appraiser, bail. Case of William Corders and others, 
destroying tickets, Hiram Ilorter, late assistant Commis- 
sioner of Highways and State Senator, bail. Case of C. Eber 
Smith and others, throwing out tickets and making false 



13 

returns, William E. Leeds bail. Case of E. K. Conklin, 
illegal voting, D. II. Lane, Recorder of Deeds, bail. These 
tacts simply speak for themselves. We have here the class 
of men who stand at the back of those who do the work of 
fraud, and who could at any time stop it if they would. 

Ring Tyranny and Intolerance. 

The proscription and intolerance of the Republican ring 
of Philadelphia is without a parallel. No man acknowledg- 
ing allegiance to it dares to be independent or think for him- 
self in any matter affecting its supremacy; no member of it 
can own his own soul. As a striking proof of this, by their 
established rules no man is allowed to vote at their primary 
meetings or to receive a nomination who in a single instance 
scratches the regular ticket. Such a rule is simply diso-race- 
ful in any civilized community. Who but the Mayor should 
in his messages to Councils, by his exercise of the veto power, 
and by the influence which his position gives, direct public 
attention and put a stop to the wrongs against the people 
referred to in these pages ? But he dare not. lie is not his 
own master. He is bound to render unwavering allegiance 
first to his party ; and the interests of the people arc a secon- 
dary matter. • 

William B. Mann and the Judges of the Common Pleas. 

Under the new Constitution it devolved upon the judges 
of the several courts of Common Pleas to appoint, in Decem- 
ber, 1874, a Prothonotary for their courts. Mr. Mann had 
held office and lived on the people some twenty years or more, 
and had every opportunity to win their confidence at least 
as an honest and faithful public officer, but did not do so. 
And when in 1868 he was a candidate for re-election to the 
office of District Attorney, so damaging was his name 
thought to be to the credit of the ticket, that the Union 
League interposed, and he was induced to retire. A change 
came over the League, and when three years later he again 
presented himself as a candidate no objection was made, and 
he went before the people and was defeated. Under these 
circumstances, and the well-known causes of his unpopularity 
with the people, it was a sorrowful shock to the moral sense 



14 



of this community when it was announced that he had been 
selected for Prothonotary by a majority of the judges. It- 
gave rise to popular comments and surmises as to motives 
which, whether just or unjust, are most unfortunate, and to 
be sincerely deprecated by all who desire to see the honor 
and dignity of the bench preserved. As the holder of one of 
the offices, the fees of which were directed by the new Con- 
stitution to be paid into the public treasury, we can only 
conjecture how far Mr. Mann's potent influence in certain 
circles has helped to defeat the consummation of that measure. 
In every community there are those affected with a chronic 
disinclination to earn their own living as most men have to 
do, and who seem endowed with the peculiar faculty of 
getting their support at the public expense, and Mr. Mann 
is perhaps not the only one whom it might be for the best 
interest of the taxpayers, and those interested in the promo- 
tion of political morality, to provide with annuities for life 
on condition of their migrating. 

Schemes for Ring Aggrandizement — Special Legislation. 

When the accumulation of debt and increase of expendi- 
ture had gone on till any reasonable tax rate upon the old 
assessment of property would not meet the demands upon 
the treasury, assessments upon real estate were put up to 
the full value of the property. The rate upon this rapidly 
rose till it is now at a point which creates serious embar- 
rassment. To increase it as necessary to meet the current 
interest and expenditures might rouse the people to revolt, 
and so a floating debt has been allowed to accumulate to 
the amount of some $12,000,000, and the city is rapidly 
drifting into bankruptcy, or the ruin of property holders. 
This would little concern the men who are responsible for 
this deplorable state of things, but for the danger that their 
profligate squandering of the people's money may be checked. 
What new devices will be resorted to it is difficult to 
imagine, but the people have reason for alarm. The city 
government is without any head to watch their interests, 
various little schemes have from time to time been resorted 
to for the benefit of the ring, or some particular member of 
it, which show the danger to the people. New offices have 



1G 



Philadelphia should pay it, and thus $24,000 a year is added 
to our burden. W it h such power in the hands of our separate 
delegation at Elarrisburg and in such a delegation it will 
be well for the people to keep a close watch to their doings. 
With honorable exceptions it must in sorrow be acknowl- 
edged that the members o{' the Legislature from this city 
are, have been for many years, a shame and a disgrace to 
both city and State. 

What is to be done about it? 

Reviewing the shameful imposition practiced upon the 
people by the office-holding fraternity, as set forth in the 
preceding pages, the question comes as to what is the remedy. 
Some special legislative changes might be proposed, but 
their adoption would not be promoted by mentioning them 
at this time. N"o mere change in the form of city govern- 
ment can be of much avail. No form will answer unless 
honestly administered, and how to accomplish this is the real 
question. And this resolves itself into other questions. 
Have the people been sufficiently imposed and trampled upon 
by the ring usurpation to be ready to rise up and insist 
upon their rights ? Are they ready to throw of&the shackles 
of party, do their own thinking, and vote only for honest 
and capable men ? Are they prepared so far to forego private 
business as to inform themselves who among the candi- 
dates for office are rogues, and who honest men, and to attend 
voting regularly only for the latter? And are they pre- 
pared to enforce in public affairs the same rules they apply 
in their private business, by paying no more for any service 
than will command good men, and promptly dismissing 
every man who has once shown himself unworthy or false 
to the interests of his employers ? 

Thomas II. Speakman. 

No. 2fi North Seventh Street, 

Philadelphia, February, 1878. 



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been created by legislative act for the benefit of particular 
individuals. A few years since an effort was made, but suc- 
cessfully opposed by the shipping interests, to impose a 
special charge on all vessels entering our port for the special 
benefit of the Harbor Master. And a scheme is now pend- 
ing in relation to the mercantile tax. The appraisers are 
allowed a fee for each license, and it is a tempting thing on 
account of the numbers. A few years since an effort was 
made to collect a mercantile tax from each of the numerous 
farmers who attend our markets to sell their produce; and 
though it was judicially decided to be illegal, the farmers 
have been harassed about it ever since. The tax. if lesral, 
being, with the fees, some eight or nine dollars, they have 
been told in some of the markets that they could be cleared 
if they would pay $2.50, and many have foolishly submitted 
to be blackmailed, the money of course never reaching the 
treasury. It may be assumed with little danger of injustice 
that the action now pending on this subject has but one ob- 
ject, that of plunder in one form or another. And in our 
local legislature efforts may be looked for to strengthen the 
ring power by increasing the numbers or pay of the police or 
other empires. 

But larger schemes than these may be resorted to in the 
present emergenc} 7 , and my purpose is to call special atten- 
tion to the danger. The safeguard provided by the Con- 
stitution against special legislation has, as to Philadelphia, 
been entirely swept away, and it behooves us to consider 
where we are. It has ever been supposed that it requires at 
least two to make a class, but in the classification of our 
cities Philadelphia has been made a class by itself, and as 
such exposed as ever to special legislation at the mercy of 
the city delegation in the Legislature. It is but a natural 
courtesy to allow the members from a particular district 
the principal say as to their district if it do not affect the 
rest of the State. One circumstance will illustrate this. 
The Philadelphia members desiring to increase the salaries of 
their judges from $5000 to $7000 (that much more than they 
should in my judgment be paid), the State which pays these 
salaries was opposed to paying the advance, and so it was 
enacted by the consent of her delegation that the city of 



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